I have just read the 28th article in a major newspaper about how much
power and influence Karl Rove has in the Bush White House. This article
also suggested that Vice President Dick Cheney has a lot of influence
as well. How nice of that paper to acknowledge the role of the Vice President.

Most of the coverage of Rove suggests some sort of sinister role in politics
and policy on his part. It is almost as if he is the real president and
George Bush is just following Rove's orders.

Rove

Nothing could be further from the truth. Rove is a loyal and trusted
aide to the president and, indeed, George Bush does solicit his opinion
on a wide variety of matters. But it is Bush, not Rove, who is calling
the shots. However, Rove understands that it is useful for some people
to believe that he has undue influence. That way they can be angry at
Rove and still think that President Bush is a good guy.

The unexpected Republican capture of the Senate and increased strength
in the House is attributed to Rove. He insists, and a subsequent conversation
I had with the President confirms, that it was President Bush who understood
that he had political capital and if he spent some of it, the payoff might
be tremendous. Rove said that Bush was anxious to get going for the 2002
campaign. He wanted to get out there earlier than he did. Rove's role
was to convince him that he needed to wait until he could be most effective.

I have seen three Democratic and five Republican Administrations up close
during my time in Washington. This Bush Administration is by far the most
effective of any of the Republican presidencies in seeking input from
its coalition partners and acting upon their advice whenever possible.
No administration can keep all elements of its coalition happy at all
times. The key is to be sure that all elements have enough at stake in
the coalition so that they will continue to support it come election time.
Bush has done that extremely well and for that we can thank Rove. He has
excellent people who assist him in making sure he is on top of what the
coalition partners want. For example, Tim Goeglein deals largely with
conservative and religious groups. Others deal with the business community
and the Republican Party and all the other parts of the coalition that
helped to elect Bush in 2000, as well as groups that did not support Bush.
The views of these groups and the intensity of their feelings are conveyed
to Rove, who then is able to explain to President Bush the consequences
of any action that he might take and how it will affect his coalition.
That is one factor in keeping the president's ratings as high as they
continue to be.

Contrast this White House with Richard Nixon's. Bob Haldeman and John
Ehrlichman completely controlled the flow of information to President
Nixon. Their agenda was often different from his. He received only the
information that they wanted him to hear. It almost isn't worth mentioning
the Ford Administration. They had virtually no contact with what should
have been their coalition. Young Dick Cheney, then Ford's chief of staff,
was brilliant, but he was not experienced enough at the time to understand
how a coalition worked.

The Reagan White House did make a real effort to find out what was on
the minds of their coalition partners. They pioneered the idea of sending
a White House staffer to the meetings of various groups. The problem was
that the White House staff was deeply divided. Chief of Staff Jim Baker
kept many of our views from the president. He was opposed by Ed Meese.
Sometimes Meese would prevail and our views would reach Reagan. But more
often than not the Baker faction, which worked in tandem with the media,
had the upper hand. Reagan did a lot, but he could have accomplished so
much more had he really known what was going on.

The situation improved somewhat when Baker left and Don Regan was chief
of staff. But after he was fired and Howard Baker and Ken Duberstein were
his chiefs of staff, we had the same old problem. Most of what we said
never reached Reagan.

Then came George Herbert Walker Bush. John Sununu did an admirable job
at first in digesting what the groups that comprised the Bush coalition
were concerned about and then conveying their thoughts to the president.
But then came the budget summit and the infamous tax hike. Sununu was
in favor of the tax hike and tried to sell it to conservative groups.
It didn't work. And after Sununu was fired, things grew even worse. By
the end of the first Bush Administration, conservatives either felt shut
out or were at war with the elder Bush.

Contrast these administrations with the current Bush White House. No
one is perfect, of course, and Rove has, in my view, made some errors
in judgment when it comes to some of the Muslims he has allowed inside
the White House. But, by and large, this White House has been better run
than any of the others. There are none of the bitter complaints lodged
against the other GOP administrations about our views not reaching the
president. Yes, the President doesn't always do what we want. That is
to be expected. However, so far, President Bush has executed a remarkable
balancing act, keeping all factions of his coalition relatively pleased.
And for that we can thank Rove.

So when you read these stories or watch the television pieces suggesting
that Rove is such a sinister influence on Bush, what they are really saying
is thus far the Bush coalition is hanging together and that is hardly
pleasing to the media.